International Woman's Day March 8th 2012

This event is part of my Farewell NYC Tour, so make sure you come out!  

Since I first started with LUPEC NYC, this has been one of my favorite events that I look forward to every year.  Women & Whiskey?!  How can it get better?!  Well, this year I am making my critically acclaimed drink, the Charlie Hustle.  And we are having this event at one of my favorite bars in NYC, Lani Kai.  I am glad my scotch drink has some tropical flair with its smoking rosemary and live rosemary branch garnish.  I think I need to wear a hat festooned with Rosemary...what do you think?

Charlie Hustle

1 1/2 oz Great King St Scotch

1/2 oz Peat Monster Scotch

1/2 oz Maple Syrup

1/2 oz Green Chartreuse

1/2 oz fresh Lemon Juice

Garnish: Rosemary "Smoke" and fresh Rosemary branch 

To "Smoke" your glass, take a dry sprig of rosemary and set it on fire on a heat proof service. When it smolders and smokes, invert an old fashioned glass over the smoking branch.  This adds and smokey warm aromatic quality to the drink.  Shake the rest of the ingredients in a tin filled with ice and strain into  your smoked glass filled with fresh ice.  Garnish with a fresh branch of rosemary.

Divorce American Style

Awww...every night in NYC!

My inbox runith over with emails about Valentine's Day cocktails.  So here is my own bitter take on that travesty.  The Grounds for Divorce is a Manhattan variation, natch.  Pretty tasty too.  The recipe calls for Amaro so here is where you can get really creative, like deciding what on grounds you are actually going to file for.  Adultery? Fernet Branca.  Abandonment? Amaro Nonnio.  Indifference? Averna.  Cruel and unusual punishment? Amaro dell'Erborista.  Easy as Newt wives 1, 2, 3.

Grounds for Divorce
1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1/2 oz Amaro (choose your poison)
2 oz Whiskey, American Style


Stir over ice and serve up with a twist of very bitter lemon.

Blues and Bluegrass

Still in the midst of my work-a-thon. I don't do drugs, rarely drink coffee (unless its the good stuff at The Fort), have no social life, and hardly drink anymore unless its tasting my own cocktails to make sure that I made them right in my delirious state. How am I functioning? How do I not have the Blues deep in my cold lonely soul? How do I keep my energy up, you ask? Bluegrass, baby. Bluegrass.

Play it boys!

Tis the Season: Dream Gifts

Aaron Keim of Colorado and Beansprout musical instruments has created this wonderful Cocktail/song book. Utterly j'adorable! This book would make a wonderful present for you booze and music loving friends (like myself). Perhaps with a bottle of Stranahans Colorado Whiskey?

This boy would also make a great present for me. Can someone please find me the unmarried version? Thanks, Santa!

Please Please Tell Me Now

Ahh..the internets! Great for re-living some precious moment from our past. My twitterati friend @ilovemesomefood found this gem today, and I must say it makes this John Taylor Girl's heart skip a beat. Check out the sultry look he gives at :20. Whiskey and Duran Duran?! I want to go to that party! Leave the creepy dolls at home though, please!

And its an ad for Suntory Whiskey Q! So this is a shout out to Jordan at Serendipity Wines, who I know loves Suntory. Those crazy Japanese! It only we could make commercials for Whiskey that target young doll-loving teenagers obsessed with pretty pop boys...

PS: my dream is to be in a punk band and do a cover of Last Chance on the Stairway..can someone hook a soul sistah up, please?

Drinky Friday

Compass Box & the McGill Law Review

This week has been marked by triumph and tragedy and when you work 7 days a week, it never really ends.

The Women & Whiskey event was a big success and the Compass Box guys had some great idea about dispelling the myth that Scotch is a drink for boys.

While we were raising our glasses to the achievements of women around the world on International Woman’s Day, we asked you to help us launch a campaign to mark the occasion.

We’re on a campaign to rid the world of the perception that Scotch whisky is more a man’s drink than a woman’s.

Yes, we know this is, (slowly), increasingly not the case.

And yes, we know this whole thing is nonsense, merely a perception based on useless cultural baggage accumulated over the years, with no physiological reasons to support it. We know that the pleasures of great Scotch whisky can be shared by all, male or female, anytime you like. We know that Scotch whisky is misunderstood. So let’s try to fix things.

Women! (And men.) Here’s what you can do:

Tell your friends. Tell your friends it’s all a misperception. Tell them to open their minds and share in the joys of one of the world’s great drinks.

Buy a bottle or two or three.

Host a tasting. Invite more women than men. Invite only women!

Feel free to bring people along gently: add water to the whisky, add ice if you like, mix a cocktail!

Teach people —no! More importantly, enlighten people about the joys of this stuff.

Send us your photos and videos of Compass Box tastings, events, happenings. Help us quash the misperception. Help us spread the good word.

Above all, share & enjoy! --JG

We also had a great party at Rye House for Rosie the Riveter's 90th Birthday.

There are Rum competitions and bar crawls and even Capture the Flask on the horizon! And yes, I still have to work and work my winter-sized ass off.

RyeGirl is slowly losing her mind as she loses sleep, but still knows how to have a good time. And here comes St Patrick's day. Its as close to Christmas as us Irish Americans can get.

Now that some delightful spring weather has arrived, its time to bring out the tall refreshing drinks again. But lest we forget it is the month of St Patrick’s day, how about a bit of Irish Spring in your glass?

Jameson and gingerale is a lovely and classic tipple, but how about lightening up in both calories and flavor by using some Ginger liqueur and fresh squeezed lemon juice instead?

This Irish ginger lemonade will definitely put a spring in your step and keep you light on your toes!

Ginger Rogers

2 oz Jameson Irish Whiskey

1 oz Domain de Canton ginger liqueur

¾ oz fresh squeezed lemon (one whole lemon)

Soda water.

Build ingredients in a tall Collins glass over ice and stir. Garnish with lemon wheel.

Women & Whisky

A Charbonneu Gal in Quebec? Oui oui!

The NY Times today listed the latest LUPEC event going on next Monday at the Astor Wine Center. Its a tweetup so make sure all you twits and bloggers come! The Twitvite is here.
Tickets are $30, with $5 of the price to benefit Dress for Success Worldwide and they include two cocktails. Go to Astor Wines for tickets here.

I will be shaking it with the Ladies and you are gonna want to try my own creation, The McGill Law Review!

I am French Canadian (A Charbonneau) and have dear friends and family just north in Montreal. I am always struck by the great scotch you can find in Montreal and reall is makes a lot of sense historically.

Ever since the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite forces at the battle of Culloden, the Scots poured into the French Provence of Canada to start a new life. In Quebec and Montreal the influence of the Scots was strong as they quickly rose up through the ranks of government and public service. Many schools, museums and institutions were founded by the new Scottish mercantile class. One school where I have friends and relatives is McGill University.

This drink is in honor of my friends Benjamin and Jordi, scotch lovers and law students at McGill.

The McGill Law Review
2 oz Of Oak Cross Compass Box Whisky
3/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse
3/4 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Lavender Maple Syrup*
Dash of Rhubarb Bitters
Spritz of Peat Monster

Garnish: Lemon Peel

Spritz a chilled old fashioned glass with Peat Monster. In a shaker prepare Oak Cross, lemon, yellow chartreuse, dash of Rhubarb bitters and Lavender Maple syrup. Shake. Fill spritzed fashioned glass with rock ice and strain mixture in. Garnish with a lemon peel.

*to make the Lavender Maple Syrup, Steep 1/2 a cup of hot water in 1 tablespoon dried or fresh Lavender for 5 min. Mix with 1/2 cup of water. Yields 1 cup of syrup. Good refrigerated for one week.

For Peat's Sake!

Come on baby light my fire! Photo: Lush Life Productions.

What can be up to 10,000 years old and 9 meters deep. Ireland, Scotland and even some parts Florida is covered with it? Why Peat of course!

But what is peat? Its is compressed organic matter..think a very young (in geological terms) coal
What is being compressed? Lichens, bog, trees, bushes, seaweed. Plant matter. A dried block used a fuel, and in fact, it is used for fuel all over the world, including in my Irish Granny's stove.

It is this unique fuel source that creates tasty, aromatic amazing Scotch Whisky. Ben at Beekman Bar & Books organized an amazing round table of Scotch Whisky Illuminati to discuss the merits of peat.

We like Scotch..scotchy scotchy scotch..down it goes in my belly! Lush Life Productions

This round table discussion also included a few wee drams of great and rare whisky.
The panel of peat professors were led by John Henry from Pipeline.
The "Peat Professors" were listed as:

Peter "malt maniac" Silver
Robin "peat monster" Robinson
Simon "Ardmore & Lahroaig" Brooking
Sam "Dr Whisky" Simmons
David "Supernova" Blackmore
Jeffery "Whisky life Magazine" Karlovich

Here is just a sampling of what I learned:

Peat is amazing at smoldering. Kilning maintains the enzymes for a good strong fermentation. Soak the barley. Let it grow and then drying and peating. You have to stop the germination of the grain and this is a smokey tasty way to do it.

We lit some peat on fire. I cannot tell you what special sense memory this brought back for me! I remember sipping some Paddy's Irish Whiskey from yellow tea cups with my Cousin Bridget while she stoked her peat stove that we huddled around for warmth. Or biking home from work through the streets of Dublin and smelling the peat cooking as I crossed over the Liffey.

But this is Scottish Peat! Very special, and it is this unique peat that makes Scotch, well...Scotch!

Islay Peat smells different that Irish peat. Not as sweet, but softer. Like warm saltwater breezes.

Moss imparts flavor in the peat, a lot of the air, sea water. Grass can make it harder.

If a scotch changes flavor over time, there is a strong feeling that that is due to distillation changes, not due to peat changes.

The great bounty of the magical peat! Lush Life Productions

Oh..the tastings!
Balvenie 17 - barley sucks up the flavor in peat. Heaven Hill, Lahroaig, Balvenie. 17 years old speyside whiskey on islay cask. Rare and unusual.

Fully peated highland. Spey river valley. Ardmore 25 year. Fruity floral. Nice sweet smokey burn. Delish! Tangerine peel nose. I really enjoyed this Scotch.

Ballechin sherry cask - like sucking a tire or an old band aid. Where is the bacon? Very interesting, but not for me.

Celp - Belgium seaweed whiskey - pre-peat. Its Green! Its weird!

Peat Monster reserve. Single malt blended, not blended whiskey. This is class stuff..very tasty.

Have we jumped the Shark with Peat? Hopped up to the point of just hopping it up? How smokey is too smokey?

I didn't always like the smoke! And thought I didn't like the peated scotch. Does that make me a girl? No, indeed, I have learned I just have more sophisticated palate and I appreciate the complex taste of peat and smokey scotch.

They say it is the most complex spirit in earth.

I say anything that can tasting like heather or smoked bacon is OK in my book.

We did get some kudos for coming to enjoy the peaty scotch, but alas, its still a lot of lads here:

Peat Boys Lush Life Productions

Where are the ladies?!

Oh here they are!

Peat Girls Lush Life Productions

Whisk(e)y Master and Mistress!

Skyy Spirits World Class Whiskies held a beautiful event Sunday night at The Back Room. It was called Meet the Masters and included legendary Skyy Spirits Whisk(e)y Distillers. The speakeasy feel of the bar was a perfect place to honor Whiskey, a key spirit that was kept alive and actually became more popular during Prohibition. There were featured cocktails, and tasting tables in the cozy room. At each table a Mast Distiller himself held court. It was a lovely way to sip, savor and learn about the productions on these fine Whiskeys.

A personal highlight for me was meeting Jimmy Russell, the distiller behind my own personal favorite Wild Turkey brand. I learned from Jimmy that down in Kentucky, they don't call it Turkey, they call it 101. That brand is far more popular than the 80 proof in his home state. Though he was mum on the secret recipe, he did confirm that Wild Turkey is heavy on the Rye, always has been. It may be more expensive to produce it this way, but Mr. Russell wants it done right and is happy to be working with a group that allows him too. It was such an honor to sip Russell's Reserve Bourbon and Rye with Mr. Jimmy Russell himself.

Besides these wonderful pockets of whiskey wonderland, there was a bar set up for playtime. You know I love to play, so I got behind the bar and with some consulting help from a Mr. Jason Codd, created the Spring Training. A tasty fresh mix of maple syrup, rosemary, Bourbon and fresh grapefruit. This drink was given to the Master's to taste and my cocktail ended up winning the night! I received this glorious trophy signed by the Master's themselves!

The Winners!

Too much fun, too many Scotsmen, and too much whiskey!

We retired next door at Nurse Bettie to continue the celebration with gifted bartender Moses. A few cocktails and picklebacks later my last tweet of the night was "Help me! Moses!"

Featured Whiskies from the Skyy Spirits Portfolio included:
Cutty Sark
The Glenrothes
Glen Grant
Bowmore
Auchentoshan
Yamazaki
Hibiki
Wild Turkey/Russell's Reserve
Tullamore Dew

Try them all..I did! And lived to tell the tale.

The (award winning) Spring Training
2 oz Russell Reserve 6 year old Bourbon
1 1/2 oz fresh squeezed Grapefruit Juice
1 barspoon Maple syrup
Fresh rosemary

Pull the leaves off of one branch of rosemary and muddle with the maple syrup in the bottom of the shaker. Ad juice and bourbon and shake well with ice. Twist a grapefruit peel over the drink and garnish with fresh rosemary.

Pure Whiskey Joy